Abide With Me by Elizabeth Strout

Author:Elizabeth Strout [Strout, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literary, Fiction
ISBN: 9781588365118
Google: NTPWoKKVM2EC
Amazon: 0812971825
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Published: 2006-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

BUT MRS. SLATIN arrived for a visit, and took Lauren shopping for curtains, a bathroom rug, a crib, dishes with apples painted on them. And when Mrs. Slatin left, saying, “Well, you won’t be here for long, dear. This is just temporary,” Lauren said she wanted the horrid old place painted pink, she couldn’t stand it, and so Tyler asked the church, and then painted the walls of the living room and the dining room pink. “Perfect!” Lauren said. “I love you!”

Joy filled him, and trepidation, for the job of being pastor of this church was, for Tyler, an assignment of great seriousness. He was moved by the kindness of his parish, how they sometimes left notes for him by his office in the church, saying how his sermon had touched them. He was moved by the Ladies’ Aid inviting him to one of their meetings; he stood, the only man among them that day in the activities room, singing with them “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” then eating sugar cookies from a paper napkin on his knee. When he suggested to Lauren that it would be good if she started a prayer group, her eyes grew very round, and she said, “Oh, dear God, no.” And so he let it go. She would be a mother soon. Life had moved up upon him in a wave of seriousness and wondrousness, and he felt he had indeed left childhood behind.

Prayer—his own morning prayer—took place in the church sanctuary, where he sat alone each morning. He loved the slightly musty smell, the simple lines of the tall windows, the rows of white painted pews, the air seeming to hold within its quietude all the prayers and hopes and fears of those who for the last century and a half had sat humbled on these benches before God. If someone happened to enter, Tyler would look up and nod, and if they wanted, he would pray with them. He felt immensely blessed to have this job.

He had tried, at first, to pray at home in his study with Lauren. She did not pray with him, as he had hoped. She said she prayed on her own, even though when they lived near Brockmorton, she would go with him sometimes into the chapel and sit with him in prayer. But in West Annett, when he tried to pray in his study at home, he was aware of her in the kitchen, wondering why she was making so much noise with the pots and pans, and when he stepped into the kitchen to say, “Lauren, is everything all right?” she said, “Yes, go away. Go back in there and pray. Or whatever it is you do.”

He had a great deal to do. It was a small parish, but he needed to acquaint himself with the board and the deacons and the various committees; he went over the membership files, the records of pledges, the church school enrollment, old reports to area ministers.

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